Performance of many current commercial and military electronic systems is constrained by the limited cooling capabilities of conventional thermal management techniques. In the case of small-scale electronics, such as integrated circuit packages, and referring generally to FIG. 1, a typical “remote cooling” thermal management system 10 is shown. Heat generated by a source (e.g. a circuit die 12) is transferred through numerous intermediate material layers arranged between die 12 and a heat sink, such as a liquid-cooled cold plate 19. These layers may include, for example, a solder layer 13, a heat sink or heat spreading layer 14, a first epoxy layer 15, a ceramic layer 16, and a second epoxy layer 17 for attaching the device package to cold plate 19. As illustrated, each material presents a thermal resistance (Rth) to heat flow and adds to the overall thermal rise from the coolant to the device junction. While such assemblies provide some level of effectiveness, increases in device power and density resulting from packaging multiple devices together, have created systems with even greater cooling requirements. These systems, in many cases, exceed the capability of the exemplary illustrated remote cooling approaches to maintain acceptable junction temperatures.
Alternate thermal management systems and techniques are needed.